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A WORKERS’ RIGHT that has long been the norm across Europe is finally set to be introduced here from next January.
Up to now, Irish employment law did not require employers to pay their staff when absent due to illness or injury. Sick pay was treated as a perk of the job that employers could decide whether or not to include in a contract of employment.
As a result, half of the workforce, over one million employees, are not covered for paid sick leave in their terms and conditions.
The outbreak of Covid-19 clusters in meat processing plants among low wage essential workers put our failed voluntary approach to sick pay under the spotlight.
A campaign by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for legislation to make sick pay mandatory, launched here on The Journal, won cross-party support and widespread public support.
Polling carried out by Ireland Thinks found nine in 10 people (87%) support workers having a guaranteed right to sick pay from their employer.
Two years on, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has now signed the commencement order bringing the new Sick Leave Act into law from 1 January.
This follows lengthy consultations with trade unions, business bodies, and the public to agree the rules for statutory sick pay (the legal minimum employers must provide) and the passage of the Bill legislating these rules through the Oireachtas.
Here’s what you need to know about your new workers’ right to sick pay.
All employees who have worked for their employer for at least 13 weeks have a right to sick pay.
Part-time employees are also covered and you don’t have to earn above a certain amount to qualify. This is to ensure people working irregular hours and in low wage jobs will have their wages paid when sick.
In the UK, for example, where a worker must earn over £120 a week to qualify over 2 million employees aren’t covered for sick pay, 70% of whom are women.
You must be certified by a doctor as unfit for work. But your employer can choose to waive this rule.
While it is common in European statutory sick pay schemes to have a rule that sick leave is medically certified, workers in Ireland are unusual in having to pay for a GP visit.
Following repeated highlighting by ICTU that this out-of-pocket expense will be a barrier for low paid workers to access their right to paid sick leave, the income threshold for a GP visit card was increased to €46,000 in the Budget.
There are no waiting days. You will be paid from the first day of absence from work due to illness or injury.
You will be covered for a minimum 10 statutory sick days a year from 2026. If your employer provides longer paid sick leave, the extra days are known as contractual sick days.
The 10 days will be gradually introduced over 4 years, starting with 3 days on 1 January.
Sick days can be taken together or separately, as needed. You cannot carry over unused sick days to the following year.
If you run out of sick days before you are fit to return to work, you will transfer over to Illness Benefit if you have the required PRSI contributions.
Sick pay will be paid at 70% of your daily rate of pay, up to a maximum of €110 a day or €550 for a five-day working week.
Workers earning below €41,000 a year won’t be impacted by the €110 payment cap.
All employers must comply with the rules of the Sick Leave Act, with two exceptions.
Employers in financial difficulty who demonstrate an inability to pay can be exempt by the Labour Court from paying sick pay for up to a year.
In such cases, employees’ sick pay will be paid from the Social Insurance Fund so that you won’t be out of pocket.
Also, if your employer has a company sick pay scheme where the benefits of the scheme are ‘on the whole as favourable’ to employees they too are not obliged to follow the rules in the Act.
If you believe your employer has not followed the Sick Leave Act rules, you can make a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission or Labour Court.
The penalty for non-compliance is up to four weeks’ full pay on top of your unpaid sick pay.
Some readers will no doubt be thinking that there will be widespread abuse of paid sick leave by workers and it will bankrupt small businesses. There is no evidence to support this.
The new workers’ right to sick pay brings us in line with the rest of Europe and will be a positive and long-lasting legacy of the pandemic.
Dr Laura Bambrick is Head of Social Policy and Employment Affairs at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
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Another potentially government collapse posted by the journal at midnight…
@Joseph Mc Dermott: dramatic much?
@Sean D: na, not really
The more I hear about GDPR and personal information , the more annoyed I become about these tags being used to cover people’s tracks! To claim that this information could “adversely affect public security” because perhaps vandalism might happen is as believable as a child telling teacher that “the dog ate my homework”. It points to someone covering up for someone!
@Dave Phelan: It smells of the State deliberately withholding information that directly impacts the lives of local communities under the spurious heading of ‘GDPR’.
This is serious, total bs from DOE and DOA,
Heads have to roll
@Joseph Mc Dermott: sooner noonan is gone the better
People use these waterways, we have a right to know what’s happening in them, in the intrest of health and safety. More underhand work by this government.
DOA sit right next to govt offices on the Kildare St side, they’ve always acted like the kings. We ditched kings à long time ago. The arrogance from this administration is unreal. The swagger in Dohneys after a weeks hard slog doing not much in the most ugly building on Kildare is obvious. I write this based on past experience.
@SPQH: Charlie has to go…malcom has to go… the government has to go.. full stop..let the voters decide
Government bodies Hiding behind GDPR again. GDPR is supposed to to protect citizens personal info. In reality it allows shoddy departments and companies to withhold vital info from the public.
Absolutely disgraceful.
Releasing this in the middle of the night. Who says the media and the government aren’t in cahoots. Open your eyes people. Lies, damn lies and statistics. FFG Out.
@Daniel Gilroy: it’s the Journal’s Forte,, they have been doing it for years,,, I believe that they will not get over this one.
And Eamonn Ryan is ok with this….or is too engrossed in his window vegetable boxes to notice?
@Sandra Molloy: SSSSSSSSSSSSSShhhh!, He’s sleeping!
Quelle surprise!
This constant drip of stories about agriculture is becoming boring. Orchestrated almost. Now let’s do one on pollution from Pharma, local authorities, aviation or data centres. No? Why’s that?
@HMurphy: Agriculture is responsible for nearly half our national carbon footprint so I see no issue with it releasing half the sustainability spotlight… however such is its political power, it’s hardly a whimper, and obscure midnight articles.
@Glen OhAilpin: *receiving half
@Glen OhAilpin: I call back on that stat.. no way does farming do more damage than cars and trucks.. absolutely no way
@HMurphy: When water restrictions kick in, due to drought and long dry weather spells. I hope you will be on here, moaning about why some of our water is undrinkable or polluted and then I can tell you GFY. These individuals, need to be exposed and we need to know what they are doing with the water after using it.
Ffg the people that have big wealth farming industries on a pedestal at the expense of or children’s future .
How dare they think they can hide critical information from the public, or more importantly, the scientific community.
Whatever about industry, it will survive as it’s a huge part of the economy. Farming and especially small scale farming will no longer be with us in 20 or 30 years. If I was in full time farming now I’d be thinking of something else for my children.
@quacquac 51: Farming is a huge part of Ireland’s economy, not industry.
@Pat Barry: it’s around 10% not that much
@michael walsh: According to gov.ie it accounts for 60% of indigenous manufactured exports.
Farmers, ppl who drive cars, holiday makers, ppl who burn turf…..is there anyone we haven’t blamed for climate change yet. The mob screaming save the planet and demanding punishment and taxes are as crazy as the crowd who spent two years during covid happy to have ppl locked in their houses and wearing masks to bed. There’s no level headed grown-up thinking with climate change, it’s basically two sides for and against and both are as crazy as one another. Guess what, the only losers will once again be the joe soap tax payers who will have to foot the bills for fines or pay more taxes and charges cos that is the answer to everything these days
@Tom Newell: If somebody doesn’t see all things can be true whether you like them or not. If you are so sure I suggest you go into a garage close the door and start your car. You will be fine as they don’t pollute
Oh how unequal the scales of ‘justice’ and ‘Democracy are. If I use my garden hose during a ban, I get fined and possibly imprisoned. Are these guys not doing something a trillion times worse and the law and ‘Democracy’ protects them. Are they even being charged for the quantities they steal.
So basically the civil service is a buffer between business sector and the public. If so let the business sectors pay their salaries.
Who’d have thought they could commercialise the weather, but there ya go, the yanks did, well played Al Gore. What’s next to sell to the masses? Shares in paper must be rising seeing USA are yet again printing more money to keep them afloat. 30 trillion more please sir!
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” comes to mind.
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